The National Endowment for the Arts announced grants this week for 11 Colorado organizations totaling $250,000.

The money will go to support a variety of endeavors, including Opera Colorado’s production of “The Scarlet Letter” and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance’s new work, based on the story of the Buddhist goddess “Tara.”

Boulder Community Media, Boulder
Amount: $40,000
For: To support a documentary and website presenting the traditional music and dance of the Volga German communities of western Nebraska, southeastern Wyoming, and northeastern Colorado.

Janet Ruth Young’s new novel is about Dani, a girl who, at age 17, suddenly finds unwelcome, violent thoughts interrupting her consciousness.

The thoughts are terrifying: What would the little boy she babysits look like if she stabbed him to death? What if she suddenly and profanely outed her closeted best friend? What if Dani upset the ladder her mother is using to paint the ceiling, and caused a fatal accident?

The thoughts are so real that she finds herself touching her lips to make sure she hasn’t voiced them, and holding her hands to prevent herself from acting upon the thoughts. In despair, Dani confesses her thoughts to the child’s mother, who promptly calls the police, setting off a chain reaction that destroys Dani’s life, and the lives of those around her.

The Denver Art Museum is expanding the hours of its popular “Becoming van Gogh” exhibit during select periods beginning Thanksgiving weekend. DAM is also offering bonus opportunities for members to see the show.

The exhibit features 70 paintings, drawings and prints from the Dutch artist along with works from other artists who inspired his development. It was curated in-house by DAM and will only be exhibited in Denver.

The new hours are a little complicated but here goes: Thanksgiving weekend, the exhibit will be open from 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23 and Saturday, Nov. 24. and from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 25.

The latest picture book from artist Henry Cole is extraordinary in its silence, which conveys both the urgency of the secrecy surrounding the Underground Railroad that helped escaped slaves find freedom, and the burden of tension shared by runaways and their surreptitious hosts.

It begins with a quilt draped over a fence, then an image of a farm girl watching Confederate soldiers ride down the road. She goes on with her chores. Something in the stacked corn startles her. Do the adults know about the people hiding in the barn?

“Alex The Parrot: No Ordinary Bird, a true story,” by Stephanie Spinner and illustrated by Meilo So.

Alex, the African grey parrot who worked with graduate student Irene Pepperberg from 1977 to his death 20 years later, was almost singly responsible for proving that birds not only understand instructions, but can communicate their needs. He could ask to be tickled, to be sprayed with water, and could correctly communicate different objects’ size, color and quantity.

Humans have communicated withprimates, but Alex was the first documented case of an animal demonstrating an understanding of form, color and simple mathematics. He understood that “zero” and “none” were the same thing — a concept that human children reach only between ages 3 and 5.

Stephanie Spinner’s picture book is engaging and touching, and it would make an excellent launching point for an enterprising National History Day project.

In Eliot Schrefer’s novel “Endangered,” a girl tries to save herself and a bonobo chimpanzee when a wildlife sanctuary is taken over by military terrorists.

Eliot Schrefer‘s extraordinary young-adult novel “Endangered” is as brilliant as it is disturbing. Sophie goes to Kinshasa in Africa to visit her mother, who runs a sanctuary for bonobo chimpanzees.

Immediately, Sophie falls into a trap, buying a baby bonobo from an illegal trafficker on the street. Her mother has warned her against this — it only encourages traffickers to kill mother bonobos so they can snatch the babies and sell them — and the consequences of Sophie’s impulsiveness are swift and horrific.

But almost immediately, the trafficker incident is diminished as revolutionaries take over Kinshasa and surrounding territory, including the sanctuary and its workers. The soldiers are quick and lethal with their weapons. Sophie turns down a chance at a rescue that would mean certain death for Otto, the baby bonobo from the trafficker.

Can they elude the soldiers and find refuge for both Sophie and Otto? The writing is as elegant as it is fast-paced. This would be a brilliant holiday gift for young readers who also are aspiring human- and animal-rights activists.

Comments Off on “Endangered” by sacrifice and survival when a sanctuary is threatened

With winter storms again reinventing the Colorado landscape by blanketing the curves and angles with white, take time to appreciate the moments that turn adults into children again.

Carin Berger’s “A Perfect Day” follows young Emma through a snowy landscape punctuated by blue footprints, ski tracks and the unexpected hole or two, evidence of floundering in a deep drift.

This storm is benign. No trees or branches fall, only snowflakes. Snow helpfully rolls into perfect balls for the “tallest snowman ever. And the smallest.” Battlements adorn snow forts. Sleds and ice skates glide effortlessly. Snow angels cooperate smoothly with their creators. As dusk arrives, the streetlights acquire halos highlighted by the still-falling snow.

It’s a lovely book to share with young ones. (Please resist the temptation to point out the omission of gray and yellow snow, of stalled cars, and the sharply cold snowmelt puddles on the kitchen floor.)

Sometimes I stare into my little beagle’s eyes and wonder what she’s thinking. She’s a talented pup, and loyal, present at my feet from breakfast to bedtime.

But does she comprehend her life? Understand the depth of our relationship?

Then I realize it doesn’t matter because – and if you have kids or dogs you’ll get this – I just think she’s adorable.

I’m full of the same wonder listening to 12-year-old Jackie Evancho sing and, to be clear, the world loves to hear her sing. She got five standing ovations during her Monday night performance of movie music with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at Boettcher Concert Hall.

Denver Arts Week is like Denver Restaurant Week, but instead of getting deals on dinner, you can get deals on museums, theaters, concerts and artwork itself.

It runs through Nov. 10, and there is lots (and lots) to choose from. You can sort it all out at denver.org.

If that’s too much work, and frankly it is a bit of work, here are my personal picks, starting Saturday and running through the end.

1. You probably already know about Saturday Night at the Museums when most of the best museums in the city and beyond open their doors for free from 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Nov. 3. But what to see? I suggest “William Joseph, Sculptor & Painter” at the Kirkland. It’s a rare look at a Colorado artist who ought to be more famous. It runs through Nov. 11. (kirklandmuseum.org)

2. The Starz Denver Film Festival runs through the end of Arts Week, and my pick is on Saturday, Nov. 10. Director David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook” stars Bradley Cooper as a guy just getting out of a psychiatric facility and remaking his life with the help of Jennifer Lawrence. 8 p.m. at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. (denverfilm.org)

Have you enjoyed an Imax movie like “Deep Sea 3D” lately? If so, why? Denver museums want to know.

You’ve probably never heard of the Denver Evaluation Network, a 15-member, two-year-long initiative that conducts studies to find out what audiences want from their local cultural institutions.

But you’ve certainly heard of its members, which include the Children’s Museum of Denver, Clyfford Still Museum, History Colorado, Denver Art Museum, Denver Botanic Gardens, Molly Brown House and others.